Lake Elsinore to Palmdale

I left Hemet this morning in brilliant sunshine and the promise of yet another scorching day......i stayed on Highway 74 heading west towards Lake Elsinore and on to the coast as the 74 was billed as a scenic route. It was unremarkable until after Elsinore itself and then it started to climb providing lovley views across the lake itself.




Lake Elsinore...

The route then developed into a 25 mile stretch of bends that seemed to just go from one to the other without any time to get bored or switch off in between....the bends themselves weren't as tight or technical as I have encountered already on this trip but they were entertaining enough for me to get to San Juan Capistrano on the other end....have some lunch....and then turn around and do them again.

After that I mad emy way north on I-15 and soon found myself in Friday afternoon motorway gridlock in the greater Los Angeles area......had my first experience of filtering through traffic in the USA. Filtering is something I do back in the UK all the time but hadn't seen anyone doing it here until I got to California.....not even sure if it is legal here! Needs must however and I had 5 or 6 miles of continuous filtering to start off with.....otherwise I would have been stuck for an age on the interstate.

Soon turned west again on Highway 2 which once again brought me into mountains and snow-covered mountains at that! I only got about 10 miles though before the road was closed in front of me (winter!) but what I saw was pretty spectacular so I turned around and made my way to Palmdale for the evening.

starting out on Route 2

The following pics were taken from a vantage point called 'Inspiration Point'.